This post will still serve as a resource page, but I have a new one for the UK as Tesco launched the Eat Happy Project (which will use connected classrooms). This is the first time in the UK, a large org has stepped up with real time video with schools.

Thursday, 27 June 2013

Here's the June 2013 UK Police on Social Media post. We have three charts for twitter, facebook and YouTube.

In video, there have been some changes at YouTube which now allow anyone with over 1,000 subscribers to have a LIVE Events Channel. So far, three UK forces are eligible: Greater Manchester, Metropolitan and West Midlands Police.

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Here's the April 2013 Survey looking at UK Police on Social Media (data sheet).

In celebration of The Metropolitan Police passing 100,000 Twitter followers, I've added a Marine Policing Unit slide. You can watch the Met's own video of thanks at the end of this post.

There's not much news about the twitter numbers this month, still growing at a healthy rate. Facebook is where the action is with sixteen forces above 20% growth. I hold my hands up as a facebook novice, so if anyone wants to dig deeper and say why there are so many likes, be my guest.

I've titled this post Culture not Technology as it's about the Social Interaction and the Storytelling as opposed to anything else. We live in a Blended Reality where we have Media Literate Citizens equipped with creative skills to communicate with a Modern World.

To understand the facebook numbers will involve looking at each story and seeing the patterns. In my view, that's the manual labour of reading and thinking about each post, not a quick click on some data visualisation tool. I cannot say enough how people, for some reason, do not spend enough time slowing down and taking one thought at a time.

Last month, I focussed on YouTube and the new One Channel. If Culture dictates, we do not need YouTube, then so be it. But as 25% of YouTube is watched on mobiles, another 25% on screens larger than thirty inches and users swapping devices twenty seven times a day - Video is exploding.

This month's YouTube slide shows nothing more than three four forces streaking out ahead. It need not be this way. I have been working with a new company called Zoom.us who provide a 25 user face to face video platform. It is truly breathtaking and available on PC and Mobiles. All Police would benefit from giving it a try. Google+ hangouts are another way, especially LIVE at YouTube.

If you've read this far, then let me finish with how I've spent the last six weeks force feeding myself Media Studies theory. I've read a bunch of texts and even more wikis on everything from Audience Theory to The Public and it's Problems (1927).

We've come a long way. When Lincoln was assassinated, it took twelve days for the news to reach England. Nowadays, it's realtime everything.

When Paris Brown was appointed (and resigned) as Youth PCC, twitter had every part in it (link to News), it was all over, in what seemed like a few hours. For me, it's stories like this that emerge from nowhere, reach a critical point and eventually simmer.

And as for the Boston Marathon, many were saying, I heard about it first on Twitter (link to articles). And camera phones are playing a major part in supplying the visual clues to catch those responsible (link to FBI).

Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, England, UK is the lead image I use in all Mike Downes Media. For me, it represents the last one thousand years and how far we have come.

One of the questions I always ask myself, What would the medieval people have done (with Media)? How did it work back then? What can we learn from them and apply today? You don't need to be Robin Hood to figure out how some people think they have all the power and the peasants have none.

This blog's readership is far and wide. Nine nine percent of the visitors to whatsinKenilworth will nevet visit the Castle, but thank you Google for making it available in this way.

Friday, 15 March 2013

Here's the third in the series of UK Police on Social Media. As usual, we have the Google Docs Data Set. I make no excuses, it's starting to look a tad messy, that's why I produces a few charts and talk you through them.

All the data is gather by me clicking through and copy, pasting the numbers. It helps me make sense and look for the patterns. Having APIs gathering data is fine, but the more statistics, the less you read.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

A month ago, I published The January 2013 Survey. Here we are, with a bunch of new data and already a revelation with the UK Police passing One Million Twitter followers (reported on this blog yesterday).

On that post, there are a few charts and a closer look at the West Midlands Police as they rose by 37%.

New this month, are a few stacked charts where you can see in blue the January numbers, and in red the followers gained from mid Jan to mid Feb 2013.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Note: By making this public post, should anyone scan my print card as a Google Image Search, they find me. I will also make one blog post to do the Same. Notice, I do not include a phone number, who needs one of those these days..

14 Jan 13 This is the first post in a series looking at the UK Police and how they use Social Media. It's not so much a Survey, but a collection of what's public and putting it all in place.

All I've done is ask a few obvious questions, looked on the web to see what I want (which doesn't seem to be there), so decided to make one data centre for the fifty three forces, see what patterns there are and ask some larger questions.